


Constellations

by worstcommander



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Longing, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-18 06:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13676580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/worstcommander/pseuds/worstcommander
Summary: James can't remember the last time he really looked at the stars.





	Constellations

**Author's Note:**

  * For [commanderlurker (honeybee592)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeybee592/gifts).



"Come in."

The door hisses open and James is halfway through before he notices the darkness.

"In or out, James." The voice is distant, tired.

It's never dark in Shepard's cabin, not any of the times he's been there. The fish tank alone is more than enough to light the whole room, and as he steps fully inside he spares a glance toward the shadowed wall, just to make sure the inhabitants are still... well, they seem to be moving. The door slides shut behind him and he blinks, waiting, familiar shapes bleeding back into view as his eyes adjust to the gloom.

Dinah Shepard is laid out on the edge of her bed, boots flat on the deck. One, anyway, the one with a foot still inside. The second is abandoned, pitched over, a task half-finished. She doesn't move as he descends the stairs, doesn't break her gaze from the holographic projection overhead.

He'd come up here for a reason, report in hand, but in this low light the shadows around her eyes are deeper than they've ever been. It can wait.

Stars whirl above them, slowly on rotation over the dull metal of the bulkhead. She's following them with a finger. Tracing.

"Taurus."

He squints. From this angle, they all kinda look the same.

"That Earth sky?"

"Home." She sucks her lower lip between her teeth and his heart speeds up, just a little bit, just like it does every time she does it. "Yours must have looked different."

"Not much to see on the coast. Too much city."

"You're in luck, then." Dinah pats the bed beside her and his traitor heart kicks it up a notch, just enough to lodge tight in his throat. Palms sweating like it's his first high school date, he makes his way over, carefully tipping back next to her on the rumpled covers until he shares her view.

She scoots over, pillowing her head on his bicep, and he forgets to breathe.

"Gemini. The Pleiades. Blasto."

"Bullshit."

"No, it totally is." Sketched out with her finger, he kind of sees it. If he squints. Anything's a tentacle when you're looking for a tentacle, probably.

"They used to navigate by them," she says, quieter this time, and it takes him a minute to realize she's not looking at the stars anymore. They move gently along her cheek, turned against them as she watches him.

He wants so badly to kiss her. Has for awhile, maybe as long as he's known her, but it's been different lately, heavy in his stomach, tight in his chest. And she'll kiss back, he's sure of it. He's known that for awhile, too, even though they can't say it out loud. Not with who she is, not with what they are to each other when they hit dirt in full armor.

That's why he doesn't.

Instead, he watches her right back, watches her eyes drift shut and her breathing slow. Curves her closer towards his chest, careful not to disturb the only sleep she's probably gotten in days.

James traces a finger across her cheek, following the soft patterns of light as they flow through the dark sea of her hair.

"Dinah."


End file.
